Posts Tagged: lower

Berkeley vs. wireless industry over safety warnings

Multiple users of wireless devices check their hand-helds. (Photo: Andrey_Popov, via Shutterstock)

by LYNNE PEEPLES, FairWarning posted 07.18.2018

Few people know that there are federal safety limits for exposure to the weak radiation emitted by cellphones and other wireless devices. There often is language about this embedded right in our phones, but finding it requires knowing where to look, wading through sometimes five or more steps and then making sense of the technical jargon.

CA120: The lowdown on California’s election

An illustration of California's flag. (Lukasz Stefanski, Shutterstock)

by PAUL MITCHELL posted 02.20.2017

Immediately after the 2016 there were a number of people and organizations that made quick analyses of the electorate, and what happened. Here in California, we appeared to be bucking a national trend: While the Republican ticket over performed in key swing states on the East Coast and upper mid-west, California saw Democrats regain legislative super-majorities in both houses, hold swing congressional seats and make Republicans appear more vulnerable than they have in many years.

Defying national trend, CA biker crashes decline

A motorcyclist and his bike, ready to roll. (Photo: oneinchpunch, via Shutterstock)

by PAUL FELDMAN posted 05.24.2016

FairWarning: The apparent 10 percent increase in motorcycle fatalities, based on an analysis by the Governors Highway Safety Association, coincided with a projected rise of about 8 percent in traffic deaths overall in 2015. Preliminary figures from the National Safety Council put the traffic deaths total at 38,300, also the highest level since 2008. In California, in contrast to the national trend, motorcycle crash fatalities actually declined by 7 percent.

Pensions have role in UC’s competitive edge

The campus of the University of California, Berkeley. Photo: LAgirl5252

by ED MENDEL posted 05.21.2015

Calpensions: In the competition for top talent, the University of California has been able to offer something increasingly rare among leading private universities: a generous lifetime pension. Now a much lower cap on pensions for new UC employees is part of an agreement to freeze UC resident tuition for two years announced last week by Gov. Brown and UC President Janet Napolitano.

Water and eminent domain: a volatile mix

A town hall meeting in Claremont that focused on water issues. (Photo: City of Claremont.)

by JOHN HOWARD posted 03.02.2015

A Southern California city has launched eminent domain proceedings to take over the private water agency that has served the community for more than 80 years – an unusual move, even in California, where fights over water are common.

Limited knowledge of English hampers voter turnout

California voters at the polls in Ventura County, 2012. (Photo: American Spirit, via Shutterstock)

by JOHN HOWARD posted 02.18.2015

Some 2.6 million of California’s eligible voters — about one in nine — speak only limited English and many of them can’t get election information in their native languages, a problem that is playing out in low turnout numbers for Asians and Latinos, according to a new study.

Dan Richard, bullet train conductor

An artist's rendering of the California bullet train. (Photo: HSR)

by JIM CAMERON posted 08.18.2014

Dan Richard, the chair of the California High Speed Rail Authority, is a man in the middle. The middle of court fights, the middle of political fights, the middle of a fight over California’s future. “The rest of the developed world has moved energetically to adopt high-speed rail. We will too,” Richard says. He may be right.

After decades of prison planning work in California and around the country, I’ve seen two prevailing assumptions about crime and punishment begin to finally begin to crack after years of real-world testing.

The first is that prisons are the primary way to reduce crime. The second is that law enforcement will not support changes